1. Birth, death, and marriage rates: the span of life 2. Sex and age groups 3. Fecundity
1. The division of labor: professions and specialization of occupations
1. Conflicts of interest 2. Comparison of social organization and social processes 3. Differences in personality types
1. Systematic studies of cities 2. The technique of the community survey 3. Periodicals on the city
I. THE CITY DEFINED
Differences in standpoint and method in the various sciences show graphically in the definitions that each formulates of the same object. This is strikingly illustrated by a comparison of the definitions held by various scientific groups of the phenomenon of the city.
1. The city has been regarded by geographers as an integral part of the landscape. From this standpoint the city is an elevation, rising from the ground like a mountain. Such observations as changes in wind velocity and atmospheric conditions produced by the city regarded as an obstruction of the landscape have been noted. Human geography has lately come to regard the city as the most significant human transformation of the natural environment, and as part of the general product arising out of man’s relation with the natural environment. Urban geography has recently been gaining ground as a phase of regional geography. The location, physical structure, size, density, and economic function of cities are the chief factors emphasized. A substantial literature has grown up which has a direct bearing on the Sociological study of the city.
Aurousseau, M. “Recent Contributions to Urban Geography,” Geog. Rev., XIV (July, 1924), 444–55.
A concise statement of the geographical approach to the city, with a bibliography of the most authoritative and recent literature. Points out the recency of the study of urban geography and the difficulties involved in the methods. (II, 3; III.)
Barrows, Harlan H. “Geography as Human Ecology,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. XIII (March, 1923), No. 1.